Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

75 the point: ‘Please note!!! this cricketer can write English.’ Hex had other plans for the rest of the summer, and on about 20 August set off to Norway to shoot elk. Kate went too, though she did not join in the actual shooting. The plan was originally for Teddy Wynyard to go, and he went for part of the time. They also met Geoffrey and Alfred Gathorne- Hardy in Norway: Alfred in particular became a close friend. He was to die in the Great War. A new outlet this year was C.B . Fry’s Magazine , which had been started in 1904. Fry wrote to him on 22 November, asking for ‘a short story or two’ . Hex’s reply was businesslike, offering a series of twelve stories at £7 7s 0d per thousand words. This was accepted, and The Fortunes of Geoff (originally Heronhaye ) began as a series of twelve stories in the following summer. This was not republished in book form. Parker says that at this time Hex was ‘taking considerable part in the affairs of the Authors’ Society.’ There is however no trace of him in the Society’s minutes this year. There was also the first thought of adapting Don Q for the stage. A Miss Webster was introduced to them by Curtis Brown with the idea that she would collaborate with Hex, but Kate says that she was of no use: ‘She had no experience, and certainly she had no natural gift that way. She was most amiable and nice but it was mere waste of time.’ Which does leave one to wonder why an experienced literary agent would have recommended her. This was the start of what was to prove a generally ineffectual attempt at writing for the stage, though things had looked promising. Fred Terry, brother of Ellen, was keen enough to come down to Sussex to talk about the play. But it appeared to be essential to get Julia Neilson, Fred Terry’s wife and co-star, who had just appeared in The Scarlet Pimpernel , and she did not feel the part as written suited her, so the project was shelved. But before the end of the year Hex was off to Newfoundland again, heading out in August with Kate to get some salmon fishing in before the shooting season started and then meeting up with Alfred Gathorne-Hardy to shoot caribou. He then went on to Canada, to shoot moose in Quebec. One of the Gentlemen